Mike Pearse - Space Cadets

I may not be much of a fan of the series or the movies myself, but as it's the 50th anniversary of Star Trek this year, I couldn't let it pass by without celebrating it as only I know how...!

This special 2009 Bash Street Annual featured some of Mike Pearse's best "extra-long" Bash Street Kids stories originally printed in The Beano - and one new story drawn especially for this book alone, a hilarious tribute to one of the best sci-fi shows in the world.

It would also be the last time Mike Pearse contributed for DC Thompson. He didn't draw further comics, Bash Street or otherwise, until the 2015 Beano annual. But that's another story...

Harry and Who

Since the final (current) series of Doctor Who premiers tonight in the UK, I thought I'd share a little something I did.

Last week my local Primary School invited me for an afternoon session, teaching the kiddies how to draw caricatures. Went far better than we all thought, so wouldn't be surprised if they decide to invite me back again ;)

For this session, I made a wise move by choosing two famous faces that the children would recognise and learn from as eamples. So here we have Matt Smith and Daniel Radcliffe (alias Doctor Who No. 11 and Harry Potter). Enjoy!

Fab Fables

The latest ING Direct adverts have gained my biggest interest over the last few months of their airing - whereas Hollywood and Television Shows are finding bigger, better and more exciting ways to construct CGI Animation (as demonstrated with the hilarious Compare the Meerkat adverts), the advertising agency responsible for these selections, BMB, have opted on hand-crafted puppets and live-action shots.

And they all look superb; each character looks distinctive and carefully built, with every ad told in a style of an Aesop Fable in link with ING Direct. Below is a behind-the-scenes video on how the ads are shot and hearing the crewmembers' inspirations and thoughts on them as a whole:



In fact, these delightful adverts remind me a lot of another forgotten BBC Series back in the 90's - Tales of Aesop, which was shot in the same wooden puppet style as by means of retelling the classic Aesop Fables, all narrated by Tom "Doctor Who #4" Baker =)

More about Tales of Aesop from their Toonhound Page!

Paint the Whole World with a...

I was rather saddened by the passing of Roy Skelton back in June - the name might not sound familiar, but the characters he brought to life would be VERY familiar to fans old and new.

Next to being one of the original voices of the Daleks for Doctor Who (next to Peter Hawkins), Roy was also a puppeteer on the popular children's show Rainbow where he voiced Zippy and George respectively - and at the same time, with great skill!

Whilst I'm more familiar with Blue Peter and Sooty when it comes to naming a classic live-action kids show, Rainbow also has several winning qualities that have made it the British equivalent to Seasame Street in America. The four friends - Zippy, Bungo and George, along with Geoffrey Hayes - not only taught kids numbers and colours and other little lessons like handling jealousy and telling fibs, but also more advanced episodes including learning different languages and cultures across the world. All fantastic stuff =)

But of course, they didn't forget to entertain as well as educate. So we were treated with the odd funny episode (often led by loud-mouthed but loveable Zippy), storytellings from Geoffrey and harmonious interludes from Rod, Jane and Freddy.

Ranking up just over 1000 episodes from its original 20-year run between 1972 to 1992, it's not hard to guess how its gained such a warm and faithful reputation. However, apart from the odd forgettable revival here and there (one featuring Dale Superville as presenter), Zippy and George had obviously proven to be firm favourites, making many present-day appearances outside of Rainbow up till Roy Skelton's death.

It's quite remarkable how many memories can be unlocked by the passing of one person connecting to them. God rest yer soul, Roy...


So here's a collection of Rainbow vids to enjoy, a mixture of old and new:

From 2002, Zippy "celebrates" 100 years of Marmite:

Zippy and George become "Zipman and Bobbin!"

And a hilarious video edited by smallerfilms of YouTube - what would Zippy sound like as a Dalek...!?